‘Paul Bartel, who died aged 61 after undergoing surgery for cancer of the liver, said early on in his career, “I’m very interested in doing eccentric, individual low-budget films” – and he hardly ever swerved from that intention.
‘It was Death Race 2000 (1975), a typical Roger Corman production, that gave Bartel the chance to make his name. A campy, sci-fi comedy, which, like the best comic-books, caricatured the horrors of contemporary society, the film involved a trans-American car race in which every pedestrian is fair game, the winner being determined by the quickest time and highest body count. It starred the then-unknown Sylvester Stallone, as “Machine Gun” Viterbo. Although much of it was Corman’s conception, many of the quirky nasty bits came from Bartel.
‘It was a terrific hit with the Saturday night crowd, and, as a result, Corman gave him another car-crash movie, Cannonball, the following year, in which the participants in a cross-country race include a mad German, comic feminists and crooked country-and-western singers. The comedy was broader, but no less black, than in the first film; among the in-jokes were appearances by Corman, as a district attorney who wants to ban the race, Martin Scorsese and Bartel himself, bald, bearded and portly.
‘Bartel came to the movies after taking a four-year course in film and theatre at the University of California, Los Angeles. He spent a year on a Fulbright scholarship at the Centro Sperimentale film school in Rome, before returning to the US to make television commercials, and a couple of comic-erotic shorts, The Secret Cinema (1966), about a New York secretary for whom everybody’s paranoid fantasy becomes a reality, and the self-explanatory Naughty Nurse (1970).
‘This led to his first feature, a bad-taste sexual comedy called Private Parts (1972), which told of a runaway teenage girl taking refuge in a seedy San Francisco hotel inhabited by perverts.
‘While serving on the jury of the 1979 Berlin film festival, Bartel wrote the initial script for Eating Raoul. Filming began in November 1980, a weekend at a time, and was finished more than a year later. As Bartel explained: “I wanted to make a film about two, greedy uptight people who are not so unlike you and me and Nancy and Ronnie [Reagan], and to keep it funny and yet communicate something about the perversity of these values.”
‘In the film, Bartel and Mary Woronov (from Andy Warhol’s Factory) play Paul and Mary Bland, who dream of buying a house and a restaurant in the country. But the only way they can finance their dream is by murdering every swinger and sleazeball in Hollywood, who, according to Paul, are “horrible, sex-crazed perverts that nobody will miss anyway.”
‘Bartel and Woronov, who had previously appeared together in Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979), play the couple in a wonderfully deadpan manner. Black comedy is a difficult art to carry off, but he strikes the right comic chord from the start, and there is not a drop of blood visible.
‘After this satire, he turned out a surprisingly feeble comedy, Not For Publication, and a relentlessly camp B-western spoof, Lust In The Dust (both 1984). The latter starred Divine, the drag queen of trash, as dancehall “girl” Rosie Velez, who is rescued by gunman Tab Hunter, the former Hollywood pin-up boy and pop singer.
‘Bartel then returned to the sadistic world of Eating Raoul with Scenes From The Class Struggle In Beverly Hills (1989), in which he played Dr Mo Van de Camp. But, whereas the former film had a unity of tone, the latter was a strained soap opera lampoon, frenziedly trying to shock. The movie ends with the Cole Porter song ‘Let’s Be Outrageous (Let’s Misbehave)’, something Bartel did both well and badly over the years.
‘The final film he directed was Shelf Life (1995), in which three grown-up children act out scenes from television. He also appeared regularly in friends’ movies. In Joe Dante’s Hollywood Boulevard (1975), Bartel steals the show as a pretentious exploitation director, anxious to “spice up the crucifixion scene”.
‘In Desire And Hell At Sunset Motel (1992), he played the sinister manager, and he had small parts in The Usual Suspects (1995), Basquiat (1996) and in the gay romance Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss (1998). His valedictory screen appearance was as Osric in an ill-conceived Hamlet (2000), starring Ethan Hawke.’ — Ronald Bergan
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Stills
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Further
Paul Bartel @ Wikipedia
Paul Bartel @ IMDb
PB @ MUBI
PB @ Letterboxd
Book: ‘PAUL BARTEL: THE LIFE AND FILMS’
Shelf Life: The Movie
Bartel, Paul (1938-2000)
Props for Paul Bartel
RIP Paul Bartel
Podcast: Remembering Paul Bartel.
The “Frivolous Gravitas” of Paul Bartel
Unusual Appetites
Director Report Card: Paul Bartel (1972)
Paul Bartel’s Guilty Pleasures
Paul Bartel Eats His Heart Out
Rom-Coms Turned Cannibalistic in ‘Eating Raoul’
Director Report Card: Paul Bartel (1982)
Paul Bartel Sticks It to the Idle Rich
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Extras
Paul Bartel Interview (Director/Actor 1938-2000)
Paul Bartel & Mary Woronov on “Eating Raoul”
Joan Quinn Profiles: Paul Bartel and Andrea Robinson
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Actor
Charles Hirsch Utterly Without Redeeming Social Value (1969)
Joe Dante Hollywood Boulevard (1976)
Joe Dante Piranha (1978)
Allan Arkush Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979)
Allan Arkush Get Crazy (1983)
Jim Wynorski Chopping Mall (1986)
William Fruet Killer Party (1986)
Joe Dante Amazon Women on the Moon (1987)
Michael Schroeder Mortuary Academy (1988)
Paul S. Parco Pucker Up and Bark like a Dog (1989)
Joe Dante Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Mario Van Peebles Posse (1993)
Tales of the City (1993)
Julian Schnabel Basquiat (1996)
Tommy O’Haver Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss (1998)
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Interview
Did success spoil Paul Bartel? Well, yes and no.
To illustrate, let’s zoom in for a moment on the life and times of the director best known for his films Eating Raoul, Death Race 2000 and other social satires that the American-born auteur made far from the Hollywood studio system before his untimely death in 2000, at age 62. Ready. Quiet. Action
Close-up of Paul loving Raoul: Over lunch in a downtown Toronto hotel restaurant where the waiters in celebration of “ethnic eating day” sport name tags proclaiming their place of origin (Hi! My Name’s Habib. I’m From Egypt!), Bartel is pleasantly surprised when asked by an approaching fan if he would autograph a poster advertising Eating Raoul, the 1981 film satirizing the cannibalizing habits of America’s urbane middle class. “I’d be delighted,” the portly director beams. (Habib gives him a Coke for free.)
Three-quarter shot of Paul resenting Raoul: Taking thoughtful sips from his glass of Coke, Bartel says the price of celebrity is this: His latest film, Shelf Life, made in 1995, had its opening delayed for more than a year because distributors were miffed that it was not Eating Raoul, or anything like his other eight movies. In short, they said it was not a Bartel flick at all, a sentiment shared by the organizers of the Sundance and Toronto International film festivals, who, by rejecting Shelf Life, almost buried it forever.
A screen adaptation of a strange but intimate play about three Kennedy- era siblings who live 30 years underground in their parents’ bomb shelter, Shelf Life is a parody of “nuclear” family values and pop culture attitudes. The 83-minute film marks a departure for Bartel because, for one thing, he didn’t script it himself. He saw the play, written by actors Andrea Stein, O-Lan Jones and Jim Turner to showcase their highly eccentric performing style, in Los Angeles, where he now lives (he’s a native of Brooklyn). He was instantly smitten.
It was a small enough project to be made independently – that is, with $500,000 (U.S.), of which $350,000 was his own money – but he was also intrigued, he says, by the comic energy of the performers, the resonance of their ideas about American culture, about relations between men and women and about how restricting physical realities can be opened up by the strength of the imagination.
But once finished, Shelf Life was, well . . . shelved. “The greatest problem about getting this film released has been because of my earlier work,” bemoans Bartel. “People expect Eating Raoul or Not for Publication. They are surprised when they see it, even confused. Even though it has something in common with my other films in that it’s also about unconventional subjects. But the style is so completely different and that’s what throws people.”
Pull-away of Paul wishing Raoul would retire: “A producer sent me a play the other day that he wants made into a film,” Bartel says. “It’s a about a woman who is raped by a friend of her uncle and in the second act she gets revenge by serving them a meal, the remains of the aborted fetus.” (The Egyptian sunlight fades quickly from the face of an eavesdropping Habib.) “It was quite well written,” Bartel continues without pause. “But I realized while reading it that the producer thought of me only because of that moment of cannibalism. And I thought, oh God, I’ve become typed as the cannibal director.”
Cut to Paul in another place and time: There are other things you could call Bartel, not all of them having to do with flesh-eating wannabes from the suburbs. Angry young man, for instance. “I think I got involved making films about society and especially about problems in society because I used to be a pretty angry guy,” confides the director, graduate of UCLA’s film school and Rome’s Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and sometime actor in films like Rock ‘n’ Roll High School and Amazon Woman.
“I am gay,” he continues. “And I think that being gay has been the biggest source of conflict in my life. And growing up in the 1950s it was taboo to be gay. I don’t think it was easy for my parents. But I also had a sense at the time that my parents had misrepresented society to me, and also other passions which they didn’t approve of or didn’t allude to and didn’t condone. As I grew up I came to terms with that, and with my parents, and more importantly with myself.”
Bartel has addressed his gay identity in some of his films, Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, for instance, and also in a new script he is writing tentatively called Modern Marriage. “It’s about two guys who are roommates, one’s gay and one’s straight, and both are about to enter a long-term relationship with another person though each has a problem with commitment. It’s more straight, if you’ll pardon the pun, in that I’m not looking to criticize here, but rather to show how people can be brought together. I will do this by minimizing differences instead of exacerbating them.”
Fade on Paul as eternal optimist: “I’ve always been more interested in doing my own eccentric little films instead of being a studio director,” relates the one-time apprentice of Roger Corman (The Wild Angels, The Trip ), and mentor to Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Peter Bogdanovich. Bartel says he likes to have control over his work. If it’s bad (like the ill-reputed Lust in the Dust, a western parody starring Divine) then the responsibility’s all his. If it’s good, then pride will prevail. “Despite the rejection at a number of festivals, I believe in this film,” Bartel offers. “I know it really works.” (Habib smiles.)
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Paul Bartel’s 11 films
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The Secret Cinema (1968)
‘A woman suspects that someone has clandestinely been filming her life and that her friends and acquaintences are seeing the movies in secret screenings.’ — MUBI
the entire film
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Naughty Nurse (1969)
‘Similarly to The Secret Cinema (another short film from Paul Bartel), Naughty Nurse can be appreciated on both the surface and more parodic levels. Nurse still manages to be genuinely sexually provocative while also being very funny and intentionally odd to some degree. It is a unique and straightforward sex romp that clocks in at an appropriately brief eight minutes. Definitely worth watching, even if you aren’t particularly into it (and I mean ‘into it’ in a non-sexual manner, by the way), as it is super short.’ — framptonhollis
the entire film
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Private Parts (1972)
‘In the sleaziest corner of Los Angeles, the King Edward Hotel has a new arrival in the form of Cheryl, a runaway teen. She’s hoping to put her life back together but somewhere in the musty halls of the King Edward lurks another guest — who just loves to chop people apart!’ — Letterboxd
Trailer
Excerpt
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Death Race 2000 (1975)
‘Make no mistake: this is a 1970s Roger Corman production, and as such it is an unabashed exploitation film. The bare flesh is as gratuitous as the violence (for reasons never quite made clear, all of the drivers’ TV interviews are conducted fully nude while receiving massages from attractive members of the opposite sex), and some gags– I am here looking squarely at Matilda the Hun and her navigator, Herman the German– would absolutely not fly today. But if Death Race 2000 is trash, then it’s really great trash. I first encountered it in high school while channel-surfing late at night, and its mix of snotty humor and not-quite-mindless violence felt like manna beaming directly into my fevered teenage mind. Films this audacious and brashly funny were rare at the drive-ins of 1975, and they’re even rarer in the multiplexes of today. In a world of superhero films, Death Race 2000 is a comic book movie– in the best possible sense of the word.’ — Oscar Goff
Trailer
the entire film
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CARQUAKE (1976)
‘After the success of DEATH RACE 2000, Roger Corman and New World Pictures wanted another car picture out of auteur/performer Paul Bartel, and so he submitted to them a project that would have been completely wonderful and astounding called… “FRANKENCAR.” Corman wouldn’t spring for it, though, wanting something a little cheaper and more mainstream, especially in comparison to DEATH RACE 2000, whereupon men and women in cars that looked like dragons and cattle and gatling guns ran over pedestrians for sport. Corman wanted a standard cross-country racing movie, and Bartel, deep in depression, feared he would be pigeonholed as an action director. Despite it all, he grudgingly delivered his “car movie.”‘ — Junta Juleil
Trailer
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Eating Raoul (1982)
‘A sleeper hit of the early 1980s, Eating Raoul is a bawdy, gleefully amoral tale of conspicuous consumption. Warhol superstar Mary Woronov and cult legend Paul Bartel (who also directed) portray a prudish married couple who feel put upon by the swingers living in their apartment building. One night, by accident, they discover a way to simultaneously rid themselves of the “perverts” down the hall and realize their dream of opening a restaurant. A mix of hilarious, anything-goes slapstick and biting satire of me-generation self-indulgence, Eating Raoul marked the end of the sexual revolution with a thwack.’ — The Criterion Collection
Trailer
Excerpt
Excerpt
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Not for Publication (1984)
‘Not for Publication is a Paul Bartel film that feels like a cross between a Bartel film and a mediocre 80s comedy. The first half is an okay at best threading of the needle between those two things but the second half is a total letdown devolving into just an underwhelming generic 80s comedy. About halfway in the warehouse scene when Barry starts getting holier than thou on Lois is when it nosedives sharply.
‘It’s sad but easy to see how this was a failure, Bartel is too weird for a wide audience but the film is too tame to really inspire any cult interest either. The wildest it gets is the little dance scene in animal costumes that Nancy Allen and David Naughton do, but it doesn’t come close to anything in like, Eating Raoul. Overall, everything is just too tame.’ — Erik [Auk]
Trailer
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Lust in the Dust (1984)
‘Divine starred — along with Tab Hunter (the two had worked together before, co-starring in the aforementioned Waters film Polyester) — in one of the most ridiculous Westerns you’ve never seen, Paul Bartel’s Lust in the Dust (1985), which is like a cross between Cat Ballou (1965), Three Amigos! (1986), and a drag show at an insane asylum. Of course, I mean that in the best possible way. This film is notable for a few reasons: (1) It’s the only relatively mainstream Western I know of, and I’ve seen a few hundred, that features a drag queen as the lead. (Women occasionally dress like men as a matter of disguise in Westerns, of course, but it always makes sense with regard to the plot; in Lust in the Dust, Divine is just Divine, as she was in Waters’ films, i.e. there’s never any acknowledgement within the film that Divine was born a man and is dressed as a woman.) (2) This is the first non-Waters film Divine appeared in. Apparently, according to various sources on the internet, Waters was offered the opportunity to direct Lust in the Dust but said no since he didn’t write the script.’ — Ron Felten
Trailer
Excerpt
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The Longshot (1986)
‘Bartel’s second work-for-hire film in a row following 1985’s Lust in the Dust. It’s a lame and tame comedy about a bunch of old guys (plus Ted Wass, 5 years after he was the son on “Soap”, 5 years before he became the dad on “Blossom”) trying to win big at the track. Schemes for betting on horses, seducing crazy women, avoiding gangsters. Ideal for lazy middle aged men with inattentive senses of humor. Star Tim Conway wrote this, but the ’80s weren’t a flattering time for him. You’d think a vehicle with him and “Carol Burnett Show” pal Harvey Korman (and Jack Weston too, aka mean old Max Kellerman in the following year’s “Dirty Dancing”) might stand a chance at some endearing cast chemistry at least, but mostly they act like they’re performing physical labor for a paycheck, not having fun among friends nearing retirement age. They rarely seem at all happy or energized to be there.’ — Michael Eternity
the entire film
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Scenes From The Class Struggle In Beverly Hills (1989)
‘Elegant drollery and wit flow through Paul Bartel’s Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills like German steel purrs down Sunset Boulevard. A haughty insouciance attends it; the film has a permanently cocked eyebrow. If that was all the film had, it would still be the most entertaining American character comedy of the year. Hell, make that the last five years. But Bartel has the classic double vision of a true satirist, and under his waspish humor runs a strong current of idealistic morality, expressed in his characters’ poignant longing to be done with their own foolishness. Bartel’s tale of sexual desire and social restraint typically gets most of its laughs from the embarrassment both his rich and poor buffoons suffer at the exposure of their intimate selves. Discretion, the armed enforcer of taste and the repressor of personality, is the real subject of this class struggle.’ — Henry Sheehan
Trailer
the entire film
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Shelf Life (1993)
‘Since his untimely death in 2000, Bartel’s work as both director and comedic actor has been celebrated around the world, praised by Hollywood luminaries such as Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, and Martin Scorsese as well as his many colleagues on the fringe– Jim Jarmusch, John Waters, Joe Dante, and Allan Arkush, to name just a few. Shelf Life was his last feature directorial effort, and has never been released. Synopsis: In 1963, a paranoid middle-class couple locks themselves and their small kids in their nuclear fallout shelter. 30 years later, their oblivious son and two daughters still survive there playing absurd games.’ — Shelf Life the Movie
Trailer
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p.s. Hey. ** jay, LA is very worth visiting, but much better to visit if you know someone there who can steer you around because it seems like a vast sprawling mess until you decode it. It’s sort of open world video game-like in other words, I guess. My dream inhabitant for the IKEA space would be a massive version of my favorite LA Mexican fast food restaurant, a tiny-ish place called Poquito Mas, which is a nonsensical dream, but then the best dreams always are? Where’s your ‘home’, and I’m sorry if I’m forgetting. Do you just wrap or do you try to transcend mere wrapping? Awesome day to you! ** Misanthrope, Similar temps here, but I like it. Brr, yum, brr, yum, etc. They do say winter and aging bodies are not fast friends, but you could’ve fooled me. ** _Black_Acrylic, I’ve heard of ‘Messiah of Evil’, but I’ve not laid eyes, etc. on it. That Philip Best always knows what’s in the darkest corners, doesn’t he? If you tried it, give me a hint. ** Steeqhen, Hi. Oh, wow, thank you for reading those. Uh, hm, I don’t cook unless microwaving for 2 minutes counts, so I wouldn’t know what to bring. Champagne? Here’s to the brightest sun in the skies over you. Is that lush yet up to date location you described where you usually are? It seems like an absolute no-brainer that you should write an entire academic thesis on ‘The Real Housewives’. It sounds like fate, destiny, and so on. No? I love ‘Hoarders’. That’s the only reality show I ever got addicted to. ** alex, Hey! Thanks for watching the livestream. I usually don’t like doing readings, but that one was kind of incredible. It seems strange that the great majority of people who are getting blocked by Cloudflare are located in North America. I wonder what that’s about. I’ll go check out the current state of the Vermin site, and, yes, do remember to hook us/me up when you’re in stock there, if you don’t mind. Right, I did give her the Cobain joke. That’s my favorite joke, but unfortunately everyone pretty much knows it by now. Next Lynne Tillman? ‘American Genius, A Comedy’ is really good. ‘Weird Fucks’ is a wild bunch of fun. Friends and new zine ideas: you’re set. My week? Seeing some art. Seeing a performance of Gisele Vienne’s and my dance piece ‘Crowd’. Eating a Xmas Buche de Noel with friends. Talking with a lawyer about film-related stuff/problems. A lot of film stuff: looking for future screenings, festivals, etc. Should be okay. Mostly fun. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Thanks about the premiere, yes, we’re very happy and very happy to have that finally in place. Huh, the cult sounds kind of maybe Scientology-ish but hopefully without the evil? With a dash of Eastern Mysticism mixed in? Haha, love is a tough nut to crack but no doubt worth cracking. Love informing whatever controls my Facebook news feed that while I like AC/DC as much as any sane person does, I’m not that interested in them, G. ** James, I really need to focus my noggin on either figuring out a nickname for you or telling myself not to be so picky and ambitious. If the blog doesn’t trip people up, it’s not doing its job. What did you win by winning the Xmas quiz? I think the first Doors album is good, but by the second album they’re already starting to gentrify. LA>Las Vegas, surely needless to say. Thanks for trying to figure out the ‘Daddy’ thing, and I like that it’s unsolvable. Try to stay festive until the slaves arrive to give you a booster. ** T, Hey, T! You’re back from Japan! How was that? I’m imagining it was a spectacularity, although you’re using the word ‘weird’ about your recent period, so … hm. Let’s definitely meet up as soon as you’re back from your holidays. Yes, we have our premiere at long last. We’re about to work on a Paris screening. It’ll be a while, I think, but you’ll have a seat there, for sure. Come back to chat, yes! It’s been too many ages. xoxo. ** Steve, Yes, the Shroom Temple is in ‘Paper Mario’, and I just defeated the big boss — a giant evil combination stapler and hole punch device — and now I’m post-Shroom Temple and driving around in a desert in my little car that looks like a big shoe. Thank you for asking, haha. Thanks about the premiere. We’re thrilled, yeah. I think our fave films lists share one item, but I’m not completely finished with mine. Everyone, If you want to know what Steve’s top 10 films of 2024 are, go back and check yesterday’s commenting arena. ** Fox, Hi. Not being found out is a totally legit goal. Do you have, like, a performance aspect to your tarot reading? Like … darkened room, mysterious facial expressions, candles, and whatever else, or are you a down to earth tarot reader? I’ve known both. Sure, here are some chaste vibes, catch! Buche feast is on Friday. Soon, but not too soon. ** Justin D, Thanks, haha. One thing I like about those photos is that, with a couple of exceptions, it shows that LA was not an especially beautiful location, just fields and scrub, so the photos are interesting without triggering nostalgia or outrage that civilisation has destroyed some natural wonder. Thanks for the congrats. I probably can’t say more until sometime in January, which is when I think the situation will be formally announced by the host. ** Darbz, Hey! It’s funny to me as an LA person that buildings in Paris that were born in 1855 are just thought of as, like, teenager aged buildings. $300! Sweet. Do you have plans for it? Sorry, my eyes seem to have missed your dog question. Um, I think I would try to maintain my natural doggy charm and sweetness, but I would try to be a little less needy. Oh, my friend, I’m really sad to hear you were feeling so rough about yourself yesterday. To me, and probably to whoever else is reading this, you do nothing but shine and enlighten and improve everything. I hope your friends or someone in your physical surroundings will counter your feeling that you should self-attack in a wholly convincing way, if they haven’t already. You rule, sorry, but you just do. My day? I beat a big, bad boss in my video game. It was a giant, evil combination stapler and hole punch device that kept punching holes in my head until I hit it with a magic hammer a sufficient number of times to break it. Other than that, I just tried to answer emails and talked on the phone and made plans really. Was your day today maybe a big improvement on your yesterday, I hope? ** Lucas, Hey, L. I’m happy if my words made sense. I hope you got lots of deep and restorative sleep last night. ** Okay. I am devoting the Day today to the lovely Paul Bartel. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Hey Dennis,
Blasted Chrome on my laptop acts up whenever I try to comment there; using my phone rn and trying to remember everything I had written, which is frustrating coz it was pretty eloquent and well-written 🙁
Some of my friends are just brining snacks, so I suggested I’d buy some desserts and Baileys. I get my disability check on Wednesday’s so it works out for me.
Yeah, that location is the lobby of the library, it’s cozy and you can talk and also study. The rest of the library scares me sometimes, I get too concerned about the decibels of my breathing. It’s funny, yesterday I went up to the 3rd floor, and these girls were squealing and hugging in the upstairs lobby. I’m sure they had a sweet reason to do so, but everyone in the lobby were first concerned, and then visibly pissed off. It amazes me that people have such lack of self-awareness or care, but at the same time, they’re probably happier and more free-minded than me.
I think when I’m finished this final year, I will apply to do some sort of research project with a lecturer or professor for the remainder of 2025. Either something random, or preferably my idea that was a rough idea for a dissertation all about entertainment and the archetypes that have persisted throughout time. Exploitation is the most fascinating to me, and reality tv is exploitative, but with levels and layers. You have the Maury’s and Springer’s that are just modern day freakshows that take advantage of the mentally ill, uneducated, the disenfranchised, and those desperate for money, all for the entertainment of middle class waiting rooms and grandparent living rooms (or at least from my childhood experience). Then you have the social competitions like Big Brother or Love Island, where a group are pitted against one another, and must play the game to earn the audience’s love, and frame others are the villains. The liked earn lifetime careers as ‘influencers’ (which almost just becomes a permanent version of their show), and the villains become a forgotten punching bag of the previous summer. Finally, you have the long-running ensembles like Housewives, that are still exploitative and mainly line the pockets of the execs, but the women themselves are given multiple seasons to show themselves as multi-faceted, and get good paychecks + the attention that can be monetized: the ‘Bethenny Frankel’s, the ‘Nene Leakes’, the ‘Lisa Rinna’s and ‘Vanderpump’s. I will see women that I think are vile monsters, desperate for fame and attention, and still deeply sympathize with them. Anyway, I needn’t think about this right now, I have an entire essay to write, with zero words on the document! I’m stuck between writing about the role of men and masculinity in ‘The Lottery’ and ‘The Daemon Lover’ (the easier option), or comparing how Jackson writes about the urban and the rural in those stories (the more interesting, but harder option). Hopefully I’ll pick one soon and start.
I was reading the responses yesterday and saw that you have a world premiere for the movie set, I’m so excited for you! Don’t tell me, I know it’s confidential, but if it’s in Europe and during a time where I’m free, I might see about going. I could even get some student media pass/work and write about it for some magazine. Anyway, time to get back to the essay!
Paul Bartel is an inspiring figure. Eating Raoul has been on my wish list forever, so it’s really about time that I got around to seeing it.
Saw Messiah of Evil last night and I loved it! Kind of a zombie apocalypse film where a Californian seaside town is taken over by an undead cult. Nice electronic soundtrack too. Some really gorgeous set design in this and it’s a shame how the film has been largely forgotten about.
Oh awesome, I think I only know this guy from Chopping Mall and the weird culty second Gremlins film, but this is really fascinating. Thanks for sharing, as usual. Yeah, one of my mom’s friends (and I guess sort of one of mine, weirdly) is a guy who’s lived in LA for ages, and has pretty similar cultural interests to me, so I’m hoping to stay over at his for a while when/if I visit.
Poquito Mas looks so good! I’m not a big foodie, but it looks like a really fun place to eat. Well, fingers crossed that a huge number of seemingly unconnected wires get crossed and Poquito Mas relocates to outside your apartment. I am a pretty typical wrapper for my Christmas stuff, but everyone I know is weird enough that we all say explicitly what we want – so the wrapping is more of a “I’ve done some labour other than spending money” kind of gesture. I am getting gifts for my boyfriend’s parents too (which is a first for me), so I’ve tried to go for some inoffensive but unique stuff – I got them “The Vegetarian” by Han Kang, “The Magus” by John Fowles, and an (apparently) good bottle of wine.
Where “home” is for Christmas is pretty fuzzy this year, it’s pretty much just Central England – my family Christmas is sort of dissolved this year (phew), so it’ll mostly be at my boyfriend’s parents house. I think everyone sort of likes me there, which is good, although I think his parents are a little nervous about the age gap. I’ve been on a solid mainstream culture diet to prepare, so that I have conversation topics that aren’t too out there – I think my boyfriend is terrified of me mentioning necrophilia or yaoi at Christmas in a sort of Festen (1998) way, so I’m reading the new Sally Rooney novel, haha. Anyway, so so so so happy to hear your film is accelerating. Congrats!!!
Hi!!
It’s so good to know that “Room Temperature” is finally about to enter the world. I know it’s probably still gonna be some time, but I can’t wait to see it.
Yeah, I had the impression that the group borrowed a lot of ideas from a lot of fields (which is pretty typical of cults, I guess).
I’d be happy to offer my Facebook feed in exchange for love’s – mine’s full of jewelry and earplug ads, haha. Love feeling immensely sorry for all Christmas trees because he hates the idea that their lives were taken just to be decorated and then disposed of a couple of weeks later, Od.
3000 loud cheers for Paul Bartel. He’s emblematic of people who confirm that you can, when it comes to art – in whatever medium that takes, you have the option to do whatever you want regardless of what anyone else might want and if they like it great and if they don’t, fuck’em! As you are you, Dennis, in my humble opinion.
Eating Raoul is a top 10 or 13 of all time for me.
Also, thanks for the reminder it’s the time of year to watch Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Think I’ll save it for after work on Fri.
Congrats on seemingly being done with all the nonsense that plagued you for Room Temperature. Cannot wait to be privy to it.
Found out this morning that an orphaned poetry manuscript of mine is a finalist for a 2024 award from a press I like (42 Miles, they’ve put out some good stuff – check’em out if you haven’t!), so that’s a boon. Hopes aren’t but this thing was scheduled for publication awhile back by a press that went kaput, as presses sadly do, so it’s just nice to know it’s still got a chance in this world.
Were there any books of yours, or versions thereof, that get orphaned and adopted?
Do not eat Vindaloo with a toothache and have a close to perfect as possible Tuesday / Wednesday!
What a gif to open a post with. Bartel seemed like a nice guy, I was hitherto completely unaware of his existence. I’ve this blog to thank for my most recently acquired cinema/film knowledge. In the counterculture/edgy film realm my knowledge extends to Pink Flamingos and stop, so this blog helps out with a bit more learning. I like that Bartel is against the whole being boxed in/defined by one thing, thing. I think I should watch more stuff like this, but film-wise I just find it’s hard to make time for them these days.
Yo Den, don’t fret about the nickname, you’ve got as long as however long our being alive at the same time is gonna last to work one out. I am prone to the same thing – not doing anything for fear of it not working out the way you want it to/not being ideal.
Oo, I dunno if the blog trips me up. I think it’s a more chill thing than that. Just a cool lil blog that’s like ‘look at this thing you knew nothing about. Now you know some stuff about it. Isn’t that swell?’ Very amiable thing, the blog.
For winning the xmas quiz, I got a massive sense of pride and camaraderie with my teammates and – a whole THREE (3!) sweets! Two of which I gave to my brother, and I had the last one. I think this evening is the first time my brother has ever heard of you – I was listening to The Booklovers by The Divine Comedy, and the lyrics mention Bret Easton Ellis, and there’s a screaming sound effect, and my brother was baffled by that, and then he asked me what Ellis’ voice sounds like, so I pulled up that one interview clip of him chatting to you. Brother asked who Ellis was talking to, and I said ‘Dennis Cooper.’ I did not say any more. Hopefully he does not do too much digging and start asking me about my Inclinations/Proclivities, teehee.
I wonder what makes a sound sound gentrified.
So, did you grow up in LA? What was that like? I’m not sure how I’d find living in a city, even though I’ll have to, come uni. As I’ve said too many times I’m not great with loads of noise and people, and being in a city has usually only ever been for a day out. I’m just used to shitty small town life (even if my town is the biggest in the county). Just, anywhere American seems dramatically different to growing up in the UK, which, is unsurprising. But American youths seem far more colourful than mine.
Kein problem, it’s always easy peezy to just ask Google anything. That we don’t know why daddy longlegs are called that is probably gonna haunt me till I croak.
Nonstop festivity, D-Dawg. I can hear my brother playing We Wish You A Merry Christmas on his trumpet upstairs as I type this. Glad to have the slaves to look forward to with that post-xmas to New Year slump. Seeya.
P.S. jay, I NEED to play more Portal 2 tonight, I haven’t played any for 2 days. But I’ve done reading and don’t have any homework so I should be able to squeeze in some. It’s fun to play Portal and have my brother watch, so I can eventually go ‘alright here you go, you do it’ when I’m stuck, or so I can have him be distracted while I Text A Boy, teehee.
Aerial faith panels, the gel, POTaTOS, it’s soso fun. And fun-ny, like, getting out loud laughter from brother and me – there’s the bring your child to work day room, and one of the kids’ panels has ‘hypothesis: it is possible’ written on it, which sent me almost to tears.
A lot of the stuff on ROM seems to be F/F or F/M, you have to do quite a bit of searching to get some regular ol’ dude on dude action. I wonder why that is. Other interesting stories I’ve noted down and want to read include a mecha story, and one where some dude picks up some faulty headphones possessed by like some sort of eldritch god, or something. Who was gonna tell me online smut was such a fun realm for fiction?
Good to have a brother-in-trashiness, then. I have gross trashy aspects which hopefully balance out my otherwise snobbish/pedantic parts.
Hopefully you’re in an upbeat ABBA kind of mood tojay, even if I quietly seethe with rage at the mere prospect of ABBA playing somewhere within the bounds of the same landmass to which I belong, teehee. L8r B)
Well, I hope you enjoyed what you played last night, if anything. Make sure to really relish in it, the last stretch of the game is excellent! Haha, playing games with other people in a way that extends beyond “oh, nice!” and not getting irritated is a skill, I think.
Yeah, it’s weird, the R-O-M leaning towards women. I think there was a post here – months ago – about drones, and I remember being surprised it’d made the jump into gay guy communities. Every single person I know irl who goes in for it is a lesbian, its interesting how these things develop. Anyway, see ya!
Oh yeah, god, Japan was amazing!! As you probably can imagine. I’ve actually been back quite a while now, my weird period has been here in Paris. Nothing ‘wrong’ per se, just very busy, very distracted, lots of conflicting priorities. Whereas if I had been in Japan all this time I think I would be approaching some kind of blissed out catatonia by now. Whilst I think of it, I’m going with 2 friends to see ‘Crowd’ this Saturday evening, is that one of Gisèle Vienne’s works that you contributed text to? I’m very excited naturally. I also saw today that William Basinski is playing a show here next year, April if I’m not mistaken, would you be down to go together? But yes, obviously, let’s arrange something well before then!
Hey. I’m hanging in there. I’ve been reading Lispector’s ‘The Passion According to G.H.’ and I feel similar about it as to what I said about Beckett’s trilogy: personally monumental. I started adding tabs to my books about a while ago, and it’s just ridiculous because I put a tab on every two pages in this book. It’s such a dense text. Definitely an intense read—which hasn’t made it easy to keep up with, because I’m so stressed out recently. Although today was okay, not necessarily negative, just arduous. Had a coffee and worked on some things with a new friend after school. That was nice. I made a new collage: I have two versions of it, I think I like the one with the white block more, it’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever made, very emotional in a way. Here’s the link: https://imgur.com/a/jxzZeEA
Which version do you like more? why? any thoughts? etc. no pressure
I’m considering sending some of my collages to SCAB but I’m sort of holding back because maybe I’d like to send in some poetry/prose too until March. But I guess I have substack for my text. It would be time to upload something there, but what? Hm. I have tons of little poems scattered across my laptop. I think I could work something out with them.
What’s up though? Anything exciting in Paris recently, or is it just cold? Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday, xo.
New Aphex Twin compilation out today! 2 & 1/2 hours of unheard music!
Who’s the Big Bad of your current video game level?
I was walking on Broadway around Houston St. this afternoon when I took a closer look at the window of a tobacco/head shop. It reminded me of your slave day: next to poppers and kratom, they’re selling bottles of “fetish urine.” It’s guaranteed toxin free.
Dear Dennis,
I love the Paul Bartel day! I haven’t seen any of these movies, I’m excited to check them out.
Also, the Los Angeles photos yesterday are amazing. The Santa Monica pictures featuring that small railroad, the Malibu pic of PCH as a dirt road against a cliff… The Pasadena and Altadena ones are so surreal, definitely doubly haunting when you drive around those areas as much as I do. Thank you for sharing.
I caught wind of the good news about the film from lurking on the blog, I’m so happy to hear! Congrats to you and Zac, l’m excited for the premiere. Yaroslav has become a good friend after the screening at Now Instant too, and it’s been great getting to know him better. We live about 5 minute walk from each other.
We’re still plugging away at the game and other projects. I got access to a motion capture suit and did some tests of my Jack Goldstein project over the weekend, and learned a lot. Here’s a pic of me puppeteering the rig, which is going through Unreal Engine into an old television in real time:
https://imgur.com/a/jSA4pXm
Yuehao had a painting show too! Her new works are inspired by her explorations of Super Mario 64. Check out the work here with a short text by me as an intro:
https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vSIwU-4BTkdrFhTqHH0fWlI8bNuANeeqHwuyf7-rGlXecCY87_AEbtdze37Y75kKbWpH1SpkVSQ4Fq_/pub
Otherwise, we are heading to Boston currently for a holiday visit. Sounds like Paris is lovely right now, hope you are enjoying it 🙂
–Matt
Hi Dennis, your chastity vibes really worked! Wow, you are indeed powerful… I left the Xmas drinks after literally one drink even though my new friend was giving me the alluring eyes while texting me. I’m going to try and resist temptation and mind my own business, but god it’s hard…! No, I’m not a performative reader at all, and I suck at acting en general, but I do adorn myself with some crystals before the reading, sage my aura and the deck, and light a candle too. These acts aren’t really performative – they actually help me get in “the zone”. Have you ever had any specific experiences with the tarot? Not too long now till the bûche feast…! Muah
Hey. The cloudflare was waiting in the wings yesterday and ate my comment. So fingers crossed this works.
RE: Being a vegetarian in Paris. Yeah, my friend did go to Paris ages ago, and it was probably a shitty tourist bait restaurant they were talking about. Yeah, I was actually surprised that they said that considering that Paris has a reputation for having an ‘each to their own’ philosophy. I actually asked because I’ve been daydreaming about going after I finish my degree in about May or so and have been sort of curious about that kind of thing. I’m going to have to work it out financially in my head though so I don’t know yet. Getting there and back isn’t an issue because there are cheap ways to get to France from the UK. It’s when I’m actually there that’s the issue. But yeah, I want to check it out and see what’s going on.
Hmm, I don’t know if Hobart will accept that story I was telling you about. I mean, I read some of the stuff they’ve put on the site and it’s really nothing like what I do except that it’s experimenting in some way, though a lot of it is good. But yes, I won’t give up if they refuse it. I believe in the story so I’ll only take it as a sign that I don’t fit with their aesthetic or whatever it could be called.
But yeah, I’m having a relaxing ‘break’. I’m already deep into the next story whilst trying not to make it too long. This one is for commission actually, for a thing my university is and isn’t affiliated with, where they publish 3-5 little stories / poems by students in a kind of chapbook / high quality zine type format. It’s just a question of funding apparently, so if they secure it I’m in. Fingers crossed, knock on wood.
But yeah, I’m feeling good. And not in any kind of manic writing state I was in before.
I’ve actually seen more of these than I would have thought. I remember ‘Eating Raoul’ being a delight. And Mary Woronov! I’ve always been pleasantly surprised seeing her in random independent films post factory.
Ah, Paul Bartel! I really have to revisit some of the classics. When I was a young teen, I was taken by an aunt to see Death Race 2000, and it blew my mind. Saw it again a few years ago, and it still holds up pretty well.
Greetings from Taipei, Dennis. Was having a lot of issues accessing your blog from Bangkok, and just gave up after awhile. Enjoyed a number of the posts in the interim, including the sad Dead Clubs day. I think the only one I’ve been to (and I’m not even 100% sure) is Medusa’s in Chicago. I was of course captivated by the Luv-a-fair photos, and found this: https://www.vancouverneon.com/page_q/luv_a_fair.htm
Bill
Hey Dennis,
The Paul Bartel stuff seems very fun. I’ve seen Death Race (and really enjoyed it, through the haze of a few beers or whatever) but had no idea that the director was otherwise notable. These all seem like pretty wonderful watches. I’ll have to get to them.
Chicago is pretty freezing right now. Sort of all I have to do is sit inside and read. I read about half of Valencia by James Nulick today, what a book. And I read Hand Me The Limits by Ted Rees cover to cover yesterday. Lots of great words. I hope you’re reading something wonderful right now, and that Paris isn’t quite as bad as Illinois.
By the way, I have a short story coming out on The Baffler’s website on Friday. The effort on the fiction paid off! It’s a very exciting way to end the year. No pressure, but if you have time, you should read it. I think/hope it will be up your alley.
Trying to get back in the habit of posting here. It’s a great place to be.
Best, Huckleberry